28 Apr
2006
28 Apr
'06
1:39 p.m.
I have to vote for the uncountability of the reals as my favorite theorem & proof. Bernie Cosell wrote:
[A proof I'd love to have a simple-enough one of that I could maybe understand: that pi is irrational [if not transcendental]... :o)]
The proof in Niven & Zuckerman is standard undergrad real analysis fare. There's a version of it on the web: http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~hr/numb/pi-irr.html Roughly the same mathematical idea, with entertaining presentation, is Kevin Wald's musical version: http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~wald/lit/pi_proof.txt --Michael Kleber -- It is very dark and after 2000. If you continue you are likely to be eaten by a bleen.